HEART IN EXILE

     HEART IN EXILE

Sleep splintered like a soda cracker.

“Take the Child in flight

into the land of Egypt.

Go. Now. Tonight.”[1]

Whatever the lovely fairy-tale –

Apocrypha state –

it is not likely that cacti fruited

fig and date;

nor swollen rivers pared the tide

to dry roads for their feet;

nor palm trees air-conditioned

sweat and heat.

If silence is food,

they had bread,

and tears to water it,

the psalmist said.

In the fabled unknown,

the mind scents danger,

and the native is wary

the quiet stranger.

Bur faith is braille (O heart in exile)

and the mother knew

that in Egypt no less than Bethlehem,

the Child grew.

Sister M Maura SSND

America.  31 January 1953

Used with permission

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[1] Matthew II:13